The Fifth
by keepfabandgayon
Summary: Gakuen AU Remember that class trip in which you had to drive four hours to your destination? …Wish you didn't?
1. Chapter 1

I asked for someone to give me five prompts. I have to use all five of them in a single chapter. The words are: Elicit. Hoop. Manga. Marmoset. Amsterdam.

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The four and a half hour bus ride from Frankfurt to Amsterdam was, in a word, taxing. Most of the students regretted ever signing up for the summer trip through Europe. Being forced to wear the too-warm school uniforms on the air-conditioning-less bus throughout the continent for three months should not have sounded as interesting as it first had, back in March when the hundred or so students whose parents were willing to pay several thousand Euros to get rid of their kids for a summer had signed up. The graduating class seemed to be taking it better than the rest. Many of them had been on the trips in the past few years, and were used to the uncomfortable weather, dress code, and traveling conditions.

However, Ludwig was not so lucky. He had not been on any of these trips yet, being as he had just entered the school earlier that year. He had enjoyed the time spent in his own country, Germany, but one of the teachers who had been in charge of his group was French, and Ludwig assumed that he would have enjoyed the trip more had M. Bonnefoy not been ranting about World War II the entire time.

The same M. Bonnefoy was beginning to read off the new list of groups. Ludwig tuned him out once finding out he was in Group 3, deciding to stare out the window instead. Behind him, he heard K. Karpusi sleepily recounting to Kiku some part of Greek Mythology; he said something about arrows and hoops, becoming mildly interested before a loud, high-pitched laugh snapped his concentration – or rather, lack thereof. Ludwig dismissed it, thinking it was probably Feliks – with all this noise, he couldn't even tell. The same laugh sounded again, and suddenly Feliciano was sitting next to him.

"Ludwiiiiig, save me!" Feliciano laughed again as his twin brother came over, red in the face, and took him by the shoulders, shaking him. Lovino let go to yell loudly in Italian and wave his arms wildly, and Ludwig found the younger twin clinging to his arm, shaking with laughter. Ludwig felt his face burn, and turned his head quickly before anyone saw him turn nearly as read as Lovino.

Feliciano detached himself once Lovino had been pulled away by another teacher – presumably Sr. Carriedo, if the loud Italian swears were enough to infer by. The Italian stayed seated next to Ludwig, though, and fell asleep when the time neared three in the afternoon. Ludwig barely noticed, continuing to stare out the window of the hot bus, pulling at the collar of his shirt. He could feel a knot forming in his neck, but ignored it. He wasn't going to look at the Italian, no matter what. He focused on the sounds of his classmates yelling and running around like marmosets, _not_ the sound of Feliciano's light snoring; he watched the trees fly by, and _not_ Feliciano's reflection in the window; and he was most definitely turning red from the heat, not in any way from Feliciano sitting next to him.

Well, of course he was denying everything… but to deny something also means to acknowledge it to oneself, right? So Ludwig was still truthful to himself, even if he lied to everyone else. The only person whom Ludwig had ever told about his feelings for Feliciano was his older brother, Gilbert, and it was not so much a "told" as a "Gilbert figured it out on a visit to the school and didn't believe Ludwig's denial of it." Ludwig assumed it didn't help matters that Feliciano gave the same over-the-top amounts of affection to nearly everyone he was friends with, and since he considered Ludwig to be his _best_ friend… well, there was a problem there.

He supposed it could have been worse. He could have been like Kiku or Lovino or any of the other students who were trying – and failing miserably at that – to hide their love affairs with their teachers. At least Feliciano was his own age. Ludwig turned to look at the row behind him, where K. Karpusi had fallen asleep sitting up, while Kiku slept with his head resting in the teacher's lap, a manga clutched in his hands. In fact, most of the students were getting tired and attempting to find the softest bus seat possible to curl up on.

As if the comparable silence had been too loud for him, Feliciano woke up just as Ludwig turned back to the window. He put his hand on top of the German's to get his attention. Ludwig, not expecting the action, turned his head around so quickly it just seemed like a blur to the sleepy Italian. A bright red blur. Feliciano laughed sleepily.

"You look like my brother when Sr. Carriedo makes fun of him." Ludwig tried not to notice how Feliciano's [adorable] accent was much stronger when he was only half-awake. He looked straight ahead, seeing over the heads of most of the other students with his height, to where most of the teachers (and Lovino) were sitting a couple rows ahead of him at the front of the bus. It wasn't much of a distraction, but it helped.

Feliciano did not appreciate being ignored. He pouted and pushed himself towards Ludwig, keeping their faces as close as possible.

"Why are you ignoring me? Don't you like me? I thought you were my best friend!"

"Um…" Ludwig's deep voice sounded awkward in contrast to Feliciano's high, almost feminine one. Maybe it was the heat making him so confused; normally he could converse with Feliciano much more easily. Today it seemed a chore to even so much as look at him, and to look away was just a s difficult.

Feliciano nudged his friend's cheek with his nose, trying to elicit some intelligent response from his friend. Ludwig ignored the apparent disregard for his own personal space – this was Feliciano, after all; he didn't have much of a sense of personal space. Like when Ludwig would wake up ten minutes before class started to find that Feliciano had gotten into his room, disabled the alarm clock, and gotten into bed with him, usually without any clothing –

"Come on, say something! You're boring today… Why are you so red? Are you not used to the heat? Ve~ in Italy it's usually even warmer than this in the summer… I'll go get you some water!"

The sudden distance from Feliciano left Ludwig somewhat more stunned than his previous proximity had been. He sighed deeply and rubbed his eyes, trying to clear his head before Feliciano returned.

Something tapped the top of Ludwig's head; he turned sharply around, wondering what the History teacher behind him could possibly want. But he was faced with only the same as was behind him before; K. Karpusi asleep in his seat, and Kiku using his lap as a pillow. He faced forward again, just in time for Feliciano to slide back into his seat and hand him a bottle of water.

"Here you go! Sorry it's not too cold, Professor Kirkland said all the ice in the cooler melted…"

"That's alright, I wasn't really all that thirsty anyways."

"Oh, then why were you so red before? You don't have a sunburn or anything."

"I was just… angry. I was thinking about something that made me angry." Ludwig nodded, attempting to make himself seem more believable. "And, ah, you surprised me when you woke up, so…"

Feliciano, apparently, did not need any convincing. "Oh. Okay! Well, I'm going back to sleep, alright?"

Ludwig nodded, and then turned back to the window. A minute later, Feliciano's breathing slowed down, and Ludwig assumed he was asleep. Something Ludwig had always envied about Feliciano was that he could fall asleep so quickly; he, on the other hand, had spent too many nights wide awake until well past midnight, unable to sleep, until, apparently, mere minutes before Feliciano would sneak in.

Feliciano mumbled something unintelligible in his sleep, a habit that he seemed to have no idea about. Ludwig fully believed that he had been woken up more times by Feliciano's nonsensical sleep-talking than by his own alarm clock. He found it endearing, much like everything else about Feliciano. His face heated up again.

He once again felt the tap on his head. This time he turned around to face a completely awake K. Karpusi looking at him – just looking, with no expression whatsoever. The teacher looked down at the Asian sleeping in his lap, then back up at Ludwig, and then leaned back and closed his eyes once more.

Greek Guilt. Ludwig had only ever heard of it before, and heard of his fellow students' experiences with K. Karpusi's incredible command over this genetically-acquired power. He half wished he hadn't figured out what the Greek meant by it, and half was extremely glad that he would not have to go through that again. He took a deep breath as he turned back around, then tapped Feliciano's shoulder. The Italian awoke just as easily as he had fallen asleep, and blinked sleepily at Ludwig.

"Um… If- If that's not comfortable, you could… you could sleep on me..."

Feliciano stared for a moment, then smiled brightly. "Okay!" He leaned over and curled up, resting his head against Ludwig's leg. "_Grazie_!"

--

Notes:

-Teacher titles are in the language of that character. So K. Karpusi means Mr. Karpusi, and so on. And England would totally make them call him professor.

-Greek Guilt is a very real thing. I myself am immune to it (years of practice) and can use it very well. It is a great and terrifying power. Do not take it lightly. It's about as scary as Russia's KOLKOLKOL, and just as effective.

-This was originally going to have Greece and Japan as the main characters (I wanted to do something for Greek Independence Day, which is today, 3/25) but it didn't work out the way I wanted. I love it anyways.

-Germany is not going to be the only lovestruck idiot. Part 2 is Feliciano's side of the trip.


	2. Chapter 2

This chapter's words are: dance, truthfully, problem, liar, nothing.

"Hey! Watch where you're sleeping, idiot!" Feliciano got a shoulder to the face from his brother, and yet he still slumbered on. Or rather, he faked it well, until Lovino started yelling in the opposite direction: "Bastard, you're supposed to sit in front with the other teachers!" Truthfully, Sr. Carriedo wasn't supposed to be sitting with a student, but neither were K. Karpusi, or Professor Kirkland, or… most of the teachers, really, but that didn't stop them.

Feliciano couldn't stop himself from giggling. He jumped away from his brother -- "_You were awake the whole time?_" -- and watched him turn bright red as the Spaniard wrapped his arms around the student's waist, both to keep him away from Feliciano and to keep him close to himself.

"What are you doing? Get the hell off me!"

Sr. Carriedo just kept on smiling. "No."

Feliciano laughed again, louder this time. "Aww, so cute!"

Lovino started yelling in Italian, ignoring his [favorite] teacher's comment about how he looked like a tomato. Feliciano scooted away from his brother.

"Don't worry," Sr. Carriedo assured him, "as long as I'm holding on to him you're safe."

"Okay then! In that case, can I ask you a favor?"

"Sure."

"Make sure you kiss him goodnight later."

Feliciano's self-preservation instincts told him to run – and said instincts had never failed him before, so he listened to them. He spotted Ludwig -- _Might as well make two bowls of pasta with one pot!_ -- and quite literally jumped into the seat next to him.

"Ludwiiiiig, save me!" He just barely caught his best friend's look of surprise before his brother caught up to him, shaking him by the shoulders and yelling things in Italian that would have been sure to get him suspended from the remainder of the trip had any of the teachers (besides maybe Spain) been able to understand him. When Lovino finally let go of his brother, Feliciano turned away and grabbed at Ludwig's arm, laughing. He stayed there until Antonio came and carried his brother away, kicking and screaming.

Feliciano disentangled himself from Germany after his brother was a safe distance away, probably being loved on by a happy Spaniard at the back of the bus. He looked up at his friend, several inches taller than he, and noticed that Ludwig wouldn't meet his eyes. In fact, he wasn't even looking in Feliciano's direction; he was focused quite intently on the grimy bus window. Feliciano pouted, but, since Ludwig obviously wanted to ignore him, Feliciano decided to ignore him right back. He looked at Ludwig's wrist; it was only about two forty-five but Feliciano didn't mind an extra fifteen minutes of sleep. He noticed that Ludwig seemed to be gripping the arms of his seat rather tightly; his knuckles were as white as the skin of his albino brother, Gilbert.

Turning over to lay on his side, Feliciano attempted to sleep, but he couldn't close his eyes. He breathed more slowly so Ludwig wouldn't catch him awake. He felt Ludwig fidget and move around restlessly in his seat, and wondered what Ludwig would be so nervous about. After a while, Ludwig turned around to look behind them. Feliciano peeked at the seat behind, and noticed Kiku asleep on K. Karpusi's lap. _Oh, how cute..._ The he noticed the manga in Kiku's hands, and how tightly he was holding it. Italy had slept in Kiku's room enough times to know that he could never hold onto anything while asleep. Kiku had been known to drop books, pens, and even pins, when he fell asleep while holding anything. He tried to contain his laughter. _Kiku… just tell him already!_

Feliciano sat up and put his hand on Ludwig's to get his attention. He remembered a moment too late that he was supposed to be asleep. Ludwig turned around quickly, his face bright red.

Feliciano feigned sleepiness as he laughed. "You look like my brother when Sr. Carriedo makes fun of him," he said, adding on a much stronger accent than he usually spoke with.

Ludwig turned even redder, and looked away from Feliciano. _Hm, what's wrong with him today? Why doesn't he even look at me? _He pushed himself as close to Ludwig as he could without touching him. _I wonder…_

"Why are you ignoring me? Don't you like me? I thought you were my best friend!"

"Um…"

Feliciano was not satisfied with this answer. Ludwig had never had problems talking to him before. Feliciano nudged his friend's face with his nose, hoping it would piss Ludwig off and get him back to normal. It didn't work like invading his personal space usually did. Feliciano remembered several occasions where he had snuck into Ludwig's dorm room and climbed into bed with him, naked, only to wake up the next morning with a slight _problem_…

_Aaah, no, don't think about that! _"Come on, say something! You're boring today… Why are you so red? Are you not used to the heat? Ve~ in Italy it's usually even warmer than this in the summer… I'll go get you some water!" Feliciano danced – literally danced – to the teachers' area at the front of the bus.

He felt bad running off like that. But Ludwig wouldn't mind, would he? He always seemed to go along with whatever Feliciano wanted.

"Feliciano? Do you need something?"

"Oh, it's nothing," Feliciano smiled brightly at Professor Kirkland, and waved at Alfred, who sat next to the teacher, serving some sort of "punishment" for some sort of "misbehavior" or other. "Ludwig was just getting dehairdated and wanted some water."

The teacher lifted a large eyebrow. "You mean dehydrated?"

"Yeah! That's it."

"Alright, well, the cooler's over there," he pointed, "but I'm afraid most of the ice melted a while ago."

"That's alright!" He grabbed a room-temperature bottle and turned to go back, only to be stopped by M. Bonnefoy. Feliciano was as surprised as anyone that he didn't have a student sitting next to him. He started to pull away, not particularly wanting to be subject to awkward touching for another couple hours; but the teacher held on to his arm tightly, seeming to look over Feliciano's shoulder. "Um…"

"Wait. I want to see if I win my bet with Herakles."

"Bet? Ah!" M. Bonnefoy pushed Feliciano back towards his seat.

Instead of sitting down slowly like a normal person, Feliciano jumped over the armrest, stood on the seat cushion, and slid down into a crouch. He handed the water over to Ludwig and stretched his legs out. "Here you go! Sorry it's not too cold, Professor Kirkland said all the ice in the cooler melted…"

"That's alright, I wasn't really all that thirsty anyways." He dropped the bottle into the book pouch on the seatback in front of him.

"Oh, then why were you so red before? You don't have a sunburn or anything."

"I was just… angry. I was thinking about something that made me angry. And, ah, you surprised me when you woke up, so…"

Feliciano pretended to believe him. He knew better than to challenge his friend's honesty. "Oh. Okay! Well, I'm going back to sleep, alright?" He turned away from Ludwig and breathed slowly, faking sleep. He mumbled "Liar," quiet enough that Ludwig wouldn't make it out, but just loud enough that he'd hear it and take it as Feliciano sleep-talking.

The bus went dark as it went through a tunnel, and Feliciano could see Kiku sleeping on K. Karpusi's lap behind them. The History teacher was wide awake, though, and reached over the seats to tap Ludwig's head. Ludwig turned around sharply and froze when he saw the teacher staring at him. Feliciano recognized his expression – or lack thereof – from that one detention. K. Karpusi was Greek Guilting Ludwig; Feliciano nearly laughed. He closed his eyes and bit his lip, curling up more to keep the laughter inside.

The half-asleep Italian didn't expect Ludwig to tap his shoulder. "Um… If- If that's not comfortable, you could… you could sleep on me..." He didn't expect him to offer to become a human pillow, either.

Feliciano stared for a moment, then smiled brightly. "Okay!" He leaned over and curled up, resting his head against Ludwig's leg. "_Grazie_!"

Notes:

-As before, Teacher titles are in the language of that character. So K. Karpusi means Mr. Karpusi, and so on.

-This took a lot longer than I expected. It was harder to write because I had Germany's side done, but I didn't want to give all of the same information. The easiest part was the beginning, because it wasn't even in Germany's side. Anyways, sorry for the extensive delay.


End file.
